Fans of the Problem hitmaker realised something wasn't right after the singer's account was flooded with obscene messages and pictures.

The unauthorised posts included a jab at Ariana's Bang Bang and Side to Side collaborator Nicki Minaj, who initially commented on an expletive-filled message by sharing an emoji of a confused face.

The reply prompted the hackers to fire back at the rap superstar, writing, "f*k u talking bout u next (sic)."

Other random uploads included a picture of a heavily tattooed man, who was branded a "f**got a** n**ga", as the cyber criminals urged Ariana's fans to start following their accounts.

The singer's devotees spread the word of the Instagram hack via other social media outlets, and their efforts appeared to draw the attention of Ariana's team, as the offensive posts were quickly deleted.

Grande, who is known for sharing selfies and pictures of her friends and dogs online, subsequently returned to Instagram later on Friday and brushed off the controversy.

"y'all when i got hacked this am (sic)," she captioned a gif of Diane Keaton, which appeared to have been taken from her 1996 movie The First Wives Club. The footage featured the veteran actress laughing hysterically as she waved her arms around.

Ariana, 24, is known to be a big fan of the Hollywood classic, which also starred Bette Middler and Goldie Hawn, and in December (16), she shared a sweet black-and-white Christmas video of herself lip-syncing to the actress' sassy version of Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me, which they had performed onscreen.